At first I thought the trip might be scheduled for February, which would have only made sense since I've been to France twice before and both times were in the shortest month of the year. I spent a week in Paris back in 2004 and conquered Disneyland Paris in 2007. When I made my travel list after coming to Hamburg, "France (not Paris!)" made the top five.
Lucky for me, the French office was opened just outside of Paris in Burgundy. I was prepared to do the training and come home, but I was persuaded to extend my stay into the weekend since I had to go through Paris anyway. I have a lot of people living vicariously through me, so I had to step it up. There were no immediate travel partners due to conflicts and lack of interest, so I did something I hardly ever do -- I posted on Facebook to see if anyone would be around. Yes, I have the sort of Facebook circle that this is legit and accepted. Within minutes, one of my best friends from college, said she was interested. I thought she was crazy...she lives in Chicago! The next day our flights were booked. Talk about spontaneous. (Tip: there are some really sweet Air France deals from Germany.)
Fast forward to March and I really wished I knew French. I actually have a Parisian friend in Hamburg (yes, we speak German together and it's awesome), so I asked him to teach me some words. I retained about 3% of what he taught me, but it was still helpful.
Together with one of my UK colleagues, we traveled an hour by train from Paris to reach the office. The office is actually a house. How many offices have you seen with a bathtub? The first two workdays were 11 hours long and by the end of Day 2 I thought I was going to pass out from cheese overdose induced exhaustion.
I also clearly stuck out in this village of 5,000. The kind of village where everyone knew everyone and no one knew me. A lot of times people spoke a few words of English to me and my colleagues would go, "Oh look, how sweet, they are trying to talk to you!" At lunch one day, I was sitting in direct sunlight that required me to pull out my shades. That really increased the staring. Plus, at least three different servers came to our table over the course of the meal. Maybe they thought I was famous?
Side note: I was literally the only one who didn't know a lick of French as my two UK colleagues knew a bit. At least it's probably fair to say I spoke the best German...or at least tied with the multilingual head of the French office!
I rallied and made it to Friday evening. It was one of those Fridays where I wanted nothing more than to put on yoga pants and just stare at TV-set with my sweetheart. But, yet again, I knew I had to rally for Erica's sake.
However, the second I entered the hotel lobby, after a train ride where I struggled to find my seat and a short walk in the rain, I couldn't help but get excited when I saw E's smiling face. Between the two of us, we had accumulated enough tips and recommendations for two months in Paris -- let alone two days. We walked our butts off, ate standard French food, and hit all of the classic must-sees. Plus, we were so lucky to experience 17°C (62°F) on the Saturday. It was surreal and made Sunday that much worse ;)
You're probably familiar with all of the classic sights, so I'll just talk about food. Everyone warned me that French food is very expensive. Well, it can be. There's a place where you can order a 900 EUR duck. I can only imagine how much the bottles of wine go for! However, they have a really menu option at most typical restaurants. On average, for between 20-60 EUR (cheaper for lunch) you can choose from a set menu. You can choose almost any combination of starter + main course + dessert.
We decided to have one "fancy dinner" and we wanted to do it menu-style. FYI, a lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays! Stores I understand, but restaurants...not so much. We found a place by the Bastille with a 36 EUR menu. This included: an Apéritif, a starter, a main course, cheese course, dessert, and a 1/2 bottle of wine. Pretty wonderful if you ask me.
I was pretty set on wanting escargot, but didn't see it on the menu. I asked, and after a conversation I didn't understand, I ended up with oysters. I didn't mind as I was sure I had eaten them before. But, once they came, I completely forgot how to eat them. So, I asked. I discovered that if you smile big enough a team of male waiters will do whatever they can to help. The oysters also came with a red-wine vinaigrette and shallots mixture which was delightful. Fish was my main course, don't even ask what kind, I couldn't tell you. E went with foie gras and duck.
When they cleared our dishes, and we tried to catch up on wine consumption (too much talking!), I was confused when they came to the table with more plates. Maybe we placed our dessert orders without my knowledge? No, it was the cheese course. We looked at each other and wordlessly recounted our extra cheesy lunch. "We'll just take one plate, please!" "Just one?!?!" We took a sampling of each of the cheeses to share. After a couple glasses of wine, they were all pretty tasty, even the moldy ones.
For dessert, we took a creme brulee and an assortment of ice-cream to share. It was one of the best dinner experiences ever. We didn't want to go home, so we popped over to a bar for a nightcap.
Best Line: "Are you meeting your lover??" Asked by one of my French colleagues when she found out I was Paris-bound for the weekend. No...even better! A BFF!
Delicacies consumed through my stay: foie gras, duck, bread, French-onion soup, cheese, escargot, oysters, white wine, red wine, cheese, epoisses (cheese!), more cheese, Perrier, bread, crépes, champagne, croissant, macaroons, creme brulee, profiteroles, ice cream, café gourmet (basically a sampler platter of five small desserts with coffee -- clearly I gave that away!), and many other things that I either couldn't pronounce, and therefore remember, and things that I didn't even know what I was eating. I also had fish and pizza, but that's less exciting. Oh, and also cheese.
Best Splurge: Champagne at the top of the Eiffel Tower, after waiting 2.5 hours even though we paid to "skip the line". Sometimes it's nice to have a friend who encourages splurging when you easily would have passed.
Number of times I spilled on myself or was spilled on (all in business attire): 4
Number of times I used the men's room by mistake: 1
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| SMC Chick rings in front of Notre Dame, naturally. |
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| Truth.Beauty.Freedom.Love. |
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